What Does Privacy Look Like To You?

In a recent Supreme Court of Canada decision, R. v. Cole, it was found that a high school teacher had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the information contained on his work-issued computer. That expectation was not absolute, however, as the school had policies and practices in place that limited the teacher's expectation of privacy.

The facts

Mr. Cole was a high school teacher with a work-issued laptop computer. He was permitted by the employer, to use the computer for "incidental personal purposes". Such purposes included browsing the internet and storing personal information on the computer's hard drive. Turns out that some of the information he stored included nude and semi-nude photos of a female underage student.